Geographic Change
by Ocassional Writer
Summary: It's a good day for change. "How about Icha Icha Paradise?" "It got boring."  KakaSasu, pre-slash


Title: Geographic Change  
Word/Prompt: OOC  
Warnings: Nothing much, maybe a few grammatical errors.  
Rating: PG-13. Really tame, it's only PG-13 'cause I do that out of protocol. A little sweetness at the end.  
Summary: It's a good day for change.

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The sun shone bright on Konoha that day, its golden rays painting the rooftops with a radiant hue symbolic of good fortune. The citizens were in similarly high spirits as they went about their normal routines, the contagious smiles even affecting the harried housewives and the stingy vendors. The streets were filled with merchants with bargain prices today, and there was much purchasing to be had.

Even Uchiha Sasuke – former missing-nin, now pardoned and given a semblance of freedom in roaming the village – could not deny that he was somewhat affected by the cheery atmosphere. He himself had gone out of his way to purchase a batch of tomatoes, some tea and dango, and a whole platter of onigiri with seaweed on it;. He planned to relax later with the tea and tomatoes, right after he offers the onigiri – Itachi's favorite – at his brother's shrine in his apartment.

Right now, Sasuke was contentedly enjoying the dango beneath the shade of an ancient-looking tree while amusedly watching the ducks at the pond nearby. A few genin tossed breadcrumbs down at them and laughed as the ducklings swam in circles around each other, the children's merry voices giving Sasuke a light feeling in his chest.

A short series of birdcalls later, Sasuke returned to his usual blank expression, betraying none of the peacefulness he was feeling a while ago. The man who he knew was tailing him all day dropped down to stand beside him, the shadow of a tall figure with silvery hair blocking out the sun's rays.

"Good morning, Sasuke," Kakashi stood slouched in his jounin vest, his tone jovial and friendly, "Great day we're having today."

"Hn," Sasuke offered in response. Kakashi sat next to the younger man without prompting, a knee bent upwards while the other leg extended in the direction of the pond. Sasuke fidgeted, moving slightly to give Kakashi more room. He picked up the open box of dango and moved it to sit between them.

"Why, thank you," Kakashi replied, eye crinkling upwards in a smile, plucking a stick of the treat out of the box, "You must be in a really great mood to not only avoid killing me today, but offer me your food."

Sasuke scoffed, to hide the smile teasing at the corners of his mouth, "Everyone is," he said vaguely. He'd hate it if his usual bad mood disrupted the villagers' joy - after what he did to them. "It's time for the usual scenery to change."

"Change is in the air," Kakashi agreed sagely, "In fact, I just passed Iruka a while ago - he's got a new batch of students to occupy his time. Sakura had her hair in a ponytail today, too, which really says a lot since Ino started wearing hers down. Chouji looks different now too, since he's starting to put on more muscle. And you – " Kakashi looked at him intensely, " – you're back, and you've certainly grown well."

Valiantly fending off an unbidden blush, Sasuke smirked saucily, "I do, haven't I."

Kakashi's eye widened for a split second, before curving upwards in a grin. Underneath the mask, his cheeks bunched up to accommodate his widening lips, "And that. That was new. Never pegged you to be a flirt with an ego."

"I just know how I look," Sasuke said dismissively. It was difficult not to, as his past experiences with droves of fangirls only served to solidify the view that he was aesthetically, if not truly, good-looking. He'd say that it was his admirers which kept his younger self from spiraling to depression on a bad day, what with the constant reassurance that there were still people in the world who found him somewhat worthy of their attention. Even if they were superficial and shallow, they were present.

"You haven't changed much outwardly," Sasuke said to fill the sudden silence. Years after they first met, Kakashi still wore the same jounin vest, same hitai-ate, and the same mask. Pakkun, now a father of a healthy litter of pups, was still oftentimes found trailing after the jounin.

Kakashi shifted his eye toward the uneaten dango in his hand, and Sasuke found his eyes sliding to the side in respect for Kakashi's privacy. Even after all these years, Kakashi still hadn't shown anyone his face. Now that he had grown, Sasuke had learned the value of secrecy, and accepted Kakashi's choices as they were.

"I haven't, much," Kakashi agreed, recognizing Sasuke's gesture and taking a bite out of the treat.

The two lapsed into comfortable silence, leisurely eating the dango and watching the ducks in the pond. The silence was so soothing that Sasuke almost fell in the danger of sleeping right then and there, face turned away and all, his eyelids growing heavy and head supported by the tree's trunk. From the sounds filtering in the crisp, cool air, Sasuke could tell that Kakashi had taken out a book to read. The steady rifling of paper further pushed Sasuke into drowsiness.

Deciding to tell Kakashi that he was heading home to take a nap, Sasuke turned back towards his former teacher.

Sasuke should have noticed that Kakashi did not replace his mask – and later on, he would reflect on why Kakashi allowed him to see his face – but instead his eyes caught onto the book that the other man was reading.

It was all Sasuke could do not to gawk at the title.

"National Geographic?" he arched a thin brow, "Really?" He read the title again in skepticism, the front page informing him that the book detailed the story of the post-war effects to the various Hidden villages. There was a vivid, painted picture of the Akatsuki, their faces concealed with shadows and the red clouds on their jackets sparking a stark contrast against the dark background.

Kakashi nodded patiently, "It's a good issue. I found it at the market a while ago."

Sasuke snorted, the sound escaping ungracefully before he could stop it, "How about Icha Icha Paradise?" He cast a glance at Kakashi's kunai pouch, but found that the other man had not worn it today. The trademark orange book was usually stuffed inside the small bag, though Sasuke could not fathom how Kakashi was able to fit the book and a substantial amount of kunai inside.

"It got boring," Kakashi replied, his tone and body language radiating honesty, "so I decided to change my reading material a bit. Went to the bookstore and found this. It's pretty interesting, all the information you get in just one issue."

Resisting the urge to gape, Sasuke 'tch'ed, "What happened to 'haven't changed'?" He knew Kakashi wasn't above playing senseless pranks every once in a while, and he suspected that this was one of the stranger ones.

Kakashi's face stretched to a grin, his teeth shining white. The fact that he was unmasked suddenly hit Sasuke, who was stricken by the man's handsomeness; the silver hair that glinted in the rays of the setting sun, the dignified and pointed nose, smooth, pale skin, and those lips –

Kakashi chuckled, "I did say that I haven't changed outwardly. I think, that in the midst of all this, I'm entitled to change internally."

Sasuke snapped out of his stupor, quickly launching a hand forward and catching the top of the book with his fingers. He yanked the object out of Kakashi's hands.

"You're hiding porn here. You switched the covers," he shot almost accusatorily, hiding his sudden embarrassment at the realization of what had just crossed his mind with gritted teeth and a fierce glare. He turned the book over in his hands, looking closely at the seams for anything odd, and bent his head to let his hair cover his eyes to obscure Kakashi's face, in hopes of being able to disperse the heat from his cheeks.

Kakashi snickered at Sasuke's look of intense concentration, as if he was aware of what his former student was really doing.

"Well –" he began to say, eyes glinting in mischief, but an abrupt series of birdcalls interrupted him. Sasuke seemed to be able to hear it as well, since he stopped in his examination of the book.

Kakashi cleared his throat, replacing his mask and standing against the light of the midday sun, "I'd hate to end this lovely meeting at this note, but it seems I have to go feed my pigeons again," Kakashi smiled, "Keep the issue."

"Oi," Sasuke reached out towards Kakashi, "I don't want –" but Kakashi had disappeared in a 'poof' and a cloud of smoke.

Sighing, Sasuke rifled through the pages, his eyes filtering through various information which his mind analyzed at lightning speed. He might as well check out what's so interesting about the National Geographic issue - and possibly, if it had mentioned anything about his brother. He 'hm'ed through different articles and dog-eared random pages - the papers' messy wrinkles would probably annoy the man when he returns the book later.

He was about to wrap up the page he was reading and move on to page 28, but there was something hastily scribbled down in the margin of page 27. Sasuke squinted, peering closely at the tiny penmanship.

"_Icha Icha got boring,_" the almost indiscernible handwriting read, "_because you're here now. - K_"

- End

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:D


End file.
